The Football Coaching Podcast with Joe Daniel

Your players have a million things happening in their lives. And it's increasing all the time.  Family. Friends. Other sports. Academics.  Even when your players want to do the right thing... it's difficult. (most of them want to do the right thing, by the way)  I recorded this episode completely off-the-cuff. No real preparation, a couple notes on a piece of paper.  But it is very real. This is i...

Every football coaching staff needs certain guys. And I put together a list. It's the 5 types of football coaches every staff needs to have. Are you one of them? The truth is you probably fall somewhere on a spectrum for each of these qualities. You have some of them. Some of them, you don't. Then you have the 5 types of football coaches no one wants . These guys are the worst. The guys who kill y...

As a Coordinator or a Head Coach, you're looking at the picture. How does it all work together? In this week's episode of The Football Coaching Podcast, we're talking about looking at your football team from 30,000 feet. How can you get it all to mesh? Use these 6 little details to get started... Let go of the 'little things' if they don't affect your big picture. Know what the non-negotiables are...

We get caught up in the X's and O's sometimes. Probably too much. There's a lot that goes into a football season. Far beyond your playbook.  Do you have everything ready? Are you prepared to deal with the off the field stuff?  Make sure you've got all your gear ready.  Have a plan for the worst case scenario. Put systems in place that will save time all season long.  Maybe even get a new whistle (...

It's the Jimmy's and Joe's. Not the X's and O's. You know that. You still spend a boat load of time on your scheme. After all, your kids are the one's you've got. You gotta do something to fill your obsessive football junkie time. Where you put those players is just as important as how good they are. That's what this episode of The Football Coaching Podcast is all about. There are 5 key factors to...

You love football. You study it constantly. Always learning. We have an abundance of knowledge at our fingertips. When is it too much? To become a better football coach (fast!) you need to focus on what matters. We're talking Pareto Principle here. 80/20 rule. 20% of your stuff gives you 80% of the results. 20% of the plays in your playbook might get 80% of your yards. 80% of your points. 20% of t...

The finishing touches are on your playbook. Now you have to teach it to your players.   Having a plan for your Offensive or Defensive Install Schedule this football season is critical. The best plays don't matter if they aren't executed.   Execution relies on how well the coaches teach.   If your Install Schedule is well thought out, the offense or defense gets taught in a logical pattern. It make...

Kirk Ferentz is the Head Football Coach for the University of Iowa. You probably know that.   In 2015 he led the Hawkeyes to an undefeated regular season and a Rose Bowl appearance. He received the Big 10 Coach of the Year Award for the 4th time.   Coach Ferentz was also the recipient of the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year and Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Awards for 2015.   He's going into his 18...

Chris Brooks has a decade of experience coaching the Wing-T Offense for Youth Football. He is the creator of WingT-Football.com . Chris has a Wing-T Football coaching pedigree that started with coaching the Youth program in Sherwood, Oregon. He learned the offense from the local High School coaches, who have over 20 years of experience with it. We'll talk about how to create a mutually beneficial...

This week on The Football Coaching Podcast it's all about going fast. Our guest is Coach Bill Legg, the Offensive Coordinator at Marshall University since 2010 under Head Coach Doc Holliday.  I've seen Coach Legg speak at Glazier Clinics on two different occasions. He has a great football mind. He's also incredibly willing to share and help other coaches.  We'll talk about the role of an Offensive...

Coach Bill Weiss is has been the Head Football Coach at Chisago Lakes High School in Minnesota for 19 seasons. His teams won their 2013 and 2014 Conference Championships. Coach Weiss joins us to talk about putting together a successful program on both sides of the ball. On April 27, 2016 at 9:00pm ET he'll be talking Defensive Line Technique on a JDFB Insider Exclusive Web Clinic. Coach Weiss talk...

This week’s episode is nothing but a rant. Seriously. I was set off by one comment from a coach I don’t even know. The comment was by new Georgia Tech head basketball coach Josh Pastner. I read about it in an article on football scoop ( read it here ). The whole thing is ridiculous. If you want to be the guy who works 100 hours a week or more, great. Sometimes I am too, but it’s not because I want...

Are you using empty formations in your offense? If not, you need to listen to this episode. Incorporating empty formations into your offense is easy. You should do it without actually changing what you do or who you are. The advantage is that we’re either getting Cover 0, or a really clean look inside the box. I like either one. For many defensive coordinators, myself included, the first answer to...

You know how important leadership is to your football team. If you don’t have it, you really know how important leadership is. When coaches are trying to change the path that a program is on, leadership is the first place we look. No one knows that better than Coach Chris Zablocki. Following a string of 9 straight playoff appearances at Cedar Grove-Belgium High School (WI), Coach Zablocki was read...

You might not think you can learn much from a soccer guy. We're football coaches. Once you listen to my interview with Coach John O'Sullivan today, you'll realize you were wrong. There's a lot to learn.  Of course, John O'Sullivan is much more than a soccer coach. John's website at Changing The Game Project website will tell you that quickly. He is a best selling author and speaker on how coaches...

Coaches like to talk about empowering your players. But when is the right time? What should they have power over? In this episode of The Football Coaching Podcast, we're looking at how much pull your kids should have in the decisions we make. Can they decide when practice starts? When it ends? Should you let your players pick team captains? Do players get to decide where they're going to play? How...

RPO's are the hot topic at clinics all over the country this year. But almost everyone is talking using run-pass options from a Spread formation.  So we're bringing in Coach Justin Dottavio for a little JDFB Insider exclusive Web Clinic to talk RPO's in his Pistol Wing-T Offense. Something a little different.  Coach Dottavio is the Head Football Coach, among other titles, at Cornerstone Charter Ac...

Putting together your Offensive Playbook for the upcoming season? Here's a checklist. What do you need to have to make sure your playbook is complete for your football team? It's not as easy as it seems.  Well you'll need to know how you plan to call your formations. Can you get into all the looks you want to show? And you need to be able to do it easily. Then there's your motions and shifts. Who...

I listen to a lot of different podcasts and audiobooks. Usually not about football.  But I get a lot of the ideas for The Football Coaching Podcast episodes from those other places. And this episode is a great example.  Dan Sullivan and Joe Polish host a podcast for entrepreneurs called the 10x Talk Podcast . It's one I've been listening to a lot, lately.  And in that podcast, I heard a great way...

Episode 149 is based on a discussion from our private  JDFB Insider  forum. Michael asked for advice heading into his first year as a Defensive Coordinator. It sounded like a great topic to me. I sent my own response, flipped through the advice from other coaches, and started making a list. I was shooting for 8 tips for 1st year coordinators. Either side of the ball, let's not limit it.  Instead I...

Today we're getting a little deep. Some off the field stuff.  And I'll travel back to 1937 for some help.  Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill is one of my favorite books. It's not some get rich quick garbage like the title might make it sound.  It's a book every football coach should read. Every person, really.  We're looking specifically at the  10 Causes of Failure of Leadership from Chapter 6...

It's the off season. And the centerpiece of your off season is the weight room. Don't get carried away with X's and O's. That's a lot of fun. But remember one thing... Jimmy's and Joe's matter more. A lot more. And you can make massive improvements for your guys in the weight room this season. A lot more than you can make on paper. So what does it take to run a great weight program?  You don't nee...

Defending the Double Wing is always a fun topic. It's a great offense for exposing your defense. The fact is, this is a tough task no matter what you run. It's a great argument against balance. I've been working on our 3-4 Defense eCourse and this is a topic that's sure to come up. So I'm preparing myself. Episode 146 is a collection of my ideas on defending the Double Wing Offense. It's not the e...

There is no 'right' way. The sooner you learn that, the better your coaching career goes. It's not easy to accept, of course. I wish there was a right way. I wish there was one single scheme that would beat everyone else every day. As long as no one else knew about it, of course. But there is not. Every scheme can work. Offense, Defense, Special Teams. If it's sound and it fits your players (and y...

When the season's over, the next one begins. Post-season evaluation is a major part of that process. These are 9 key points that your staff needs to discuss during the off-season. Address them, you get better. Ignore them, you get disaster.